Dear Fellow Countrymen,
Distinguished Guests,

The Republic of Estonia has reached the eve of her 79th anniversary. In accordance with a tradition going back to the juvenile days of our country, we confer honours - orders and medals - on those men and women who have secured the continuity of our country: with their weapon in battlefields, with their word before the international community, with their deed in the native land they have protected and promoted the Estonian language, culture, sciences, values, in short - the Estonian identity. The essence of today's simple ceremony is to express our deep esteem to those women and men, be they Estonians or foreigners, who through their actions have demonstrated their faith in the principles of international law and in the Republic of Estonia, as our state was born of the right of a free people to free expression of the will. The rule of foreign countries may have been able to muffle the voice of the native country, but it has never been able to break the will of the people. And on the other hand, the will of the people has fed particularly on the knowledge that injustice will never generate new justice. In this unshakeable, almost stubborn and no doubt at the same time touching belief and faith in international law we have even been a model to many in Europe. As an example of this, allow me to read out Order no. 3 of the President of the Republic, which is also one of the first documents of the post-World-War-II archives of the Presidential Palace. This is what it says:

''A constitutional system of government has again been established in the Republic of Estonia. The citizens of the republic have elected a parliament, and the President of the Republic has been inaugurated.

Therefore, referring to the Declaration of 16 July 1992 of the Government of the Republic in Exile, I step down as Prime Minister and give up fulfilling the duties of the President of the Republic as from today.''

This was signed, as you will have guessed, by Heinrich Mark, Prime Minister Acting as President of the Republic.

So the essence of today's and the future thanking days - for we could call today a thanking day - is honouring the people who have shouldered the continuity of the Republic of Estonia.

Last year the Republic of Estonia thanked Heinrich Mark by bestowing her highest order on him. Last year like today the Republic of Estonia expressed her gratitude and esteem above all to those who had been ready to sacrifice their lives for the continuity of the state. I am glad that the Resistance of Estonia is represented here at Kadriorg today in the person of Enn Tarto, chevalier of the Order of the National Coat of Arms.

This continuity is carried by the oldest person among those receiving honours today, Taavet Poska - born in 1896, a veteran of the War of Liberation, the founder of the Museum of the War of Liberation and its head until the occupation of our fatherland, whom [as he is not present] I greet from Kadriorg on your behalf as well.

The spirit of our grandfathers and fathers is carried into the future by the youngest person among those receiving honours today, Jallo Freiethal, who will mark his thirteenth birthday next week. Jallo is a schoolboy from Pala, who kept his head in a tragic accident and avoided the explosion of the school bus.

There is almost a century between the birthdates of these two men, a century full of victims and sacrifices, which has witnessed Estonia's rise and struggle, rise and maturing in struggle, labour, sweat and pains.

It gives me especial pleasure to array two of our guests among the Estonian women and men: the one-time Danish foreign minister, Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, and the Chairman of the Board of Military Advisers for Estonia and our Baltic sister countries, the British general Garry Johnson. Uffe Ellemann-Jensen is among those European politicians who knew before the others how inevitable Estonia's liberation from the occupying regime was. And he was the man who said: Denmark needn't recognize the Republic of Estonia, because you can't recognize the same country twice. Denmark will simply re-establish her diplomatic relations with Estonia.

Garry Johnson does not need a long introduction either. He is the man who, having retired, dedicated himself to the training of the Estonian Defence Forces. Every son and daughter of Estonia wearing a uniform is a pupil of General Garry Johnson.

Dear fellow countrymen! This is where the difference between the pre-war Estonia and the post-war Estonia lies: Estonia lives with Europe, and Europe lives with Estonia. Our independence is at the same time Europe's self-realization.

I congratulate you with all my heart.

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